The San Antonio Housing Trust will know by May 15 if their offer is accepted or rejected.
SAN ANTONIO — For the first time, the San Antonio Housing Trust is placing a bid on an already affordable housing complex downtown so it can become affordable housing permanently.
All 72 units of the historical Robert E. Lee apartment complex have been affordable housing because the owner, RELEE partners, used state low-income housing tax credits.
Residents who live there must make below 60% AMI in San Antonio and New Braunfels to qualify.
“I pay $988 a month. I make just a little bit too much on my Social Security to get any government assistance but that’s fine,” said Jim Leatherman, a resident. “I’ve called this home for almost 11 years, and I can’t think of calling any other place home.”
The apartment complex is up for sale, listed by the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs for $4.35 million dollars. Whoever purchases the building has to keep it affordable until December 2026, according to a TDHCA spokesperson.
“Many people there, including myself, just can’t come up with money to move, you know, in deposits and how much the movers are and everything,” Leatherman explained. “So most of us kind of we would end up homeless just because we couldn’t afford to do anything.”
Developer Weston Urban, has already put an offer. Weston Urban owns much of San Antonio’s downtown, including the Missions baseball team and the Soap Factory Apartments which will be eventually demolished to make way for the new downtown Missions stadium.
Because of the tax credits that were used, qualified nonprofits have the right to first refusal if they can offer the fair market price within 90 days of the listing date. It’s why the San Antonio Housing Trust is placing a competitive bid, with the hopes of keeping the Robert E. Lee apartments affordable permanently.
“We want to make sure that the residents have an opportunity to stay here so that they can live, work and play in the area,” said Councilwoman Adriana Rocha Garcia, who sits on the San Antonio Housing Trust Board. “The programs and the services that are accessible to them at the Robert E. Lee are critical.”
On March 21, the San Antonio Housing Trust approved allowing the executive director to negotiate to get the deal to go through.
“We are the residents teaming up with the Housing Trust and we’ve given them our blessing to buy the building. So legally, it should be good,” said Megan Navarro, founder of the Robert E. Lee Tenants Union.
“But we’re all still holding our breath and there’s very much a sense of anxiety,” she added. “We want to really inspire other regular working class people to organize and let this be a success story because it really is a David and Goliath story. I mean, we’re going up against a $1 billion entity and we’re just regular people that care about each other and we don’t want to be displaced.”
The San Antonio Housing Trust will know by May 15 if their offer is accepted or rejected.